Gunners boss says defending the Bees’ long throws and corners requires something close to divine intervention after costly 1-1 draw
Mikel Arteta does not often admit defeat before the battle is lost. But standing in the bowels of the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday evening, the Arsenal manager conceded there is only so much his players can do when Brentford launch another long throw into their penalty area.
“You have to pray,” Arteta said. “Because the chaos that is in and around that ball is very, very difficult to defend.”
His team had just dropped two points in a Premier League title race that grows tighter by the week. Noni Madueke’s second-half header had put Arsenal ahead. Keane Lewis-Potter’s equaliser, coming from a Michael Kayode long throw that flicked off Sepp van den Berg, snatched it back. The Gunners now lead Manchester City by four points, with a trip to the Etihad looming in April.
Arteta wasn’t making excuses. He was stating facts.
“We scored the goal and the game was under total control,” he explained. “But against them, that’s not enough. They just need somebody making a foul that is unnecessary, a ball in the channel, they push you, the clearance is not good, the ball before a throw-in — and then you have to pray.”
He paused, letting the word hang in the air.
“Because they are exceptional at what they do.”
Exceptional is one word for it. Relentless is another. Brentford have turned the dead ball into a weapon of mass disruption. Kayode’s throws arrive with the velocity of a corner kick. Bodies collide. Clearances are snatched at. Chaos, as Arteta put it, ensues.
Arsenal did survive some of it. Cristhian Mosquera produced a sliding challenge of outrageous timing to deny Igor Thiago. Declan Rice, sprinting back in stoppage time, poked the ball away from danger with Brentford poised to score. But survival, Arteta knows, is not the same as control.
“That has to be every action,” he said of his side’s defensive efforts. “Because they go for volume. They know the probability they want to create and they just need volume to increase that probability. They are constantly doing that and they are really good at doing that.”
The statistics bear him out. Only three Premier League games this season have featured fewer first-half attempts than this one. Arsenal registered zero shots on target before the interval. They were, by Arteta’s own admission, ragged.
“We said before the game: you want to win here, you’re going to have to defend the box with your life,” he added. “You’re going to have to clear the ball because there are a lot of people there. And if you don’t do that, it’s very difficult for you to win the game.”
They didn’t do it enough. Not quite. And so a lead was surrendered, a gap was narrowed, and a manager was left talking about prayer in a post-match press conference.
The title race marches on. Manchester City, lurking in the shadows, will have noted every word.
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